CSBG Archive

Comics Should Be Good’s Top 100 Comic Book Writers and Artists

Welcome to the Comics Should Be Good Top 100 Comic Book Writers and Artists poll!

It seems like end of the year is a good time to do these things. I did this one back in 2006 on the CBR forums, but that was only for forum members. This is open to whoever wants to vote!

It’s time to vote for your top ten all-time favorite comic book writers and artists.

Here’s the deal. You folks all vote in the comments section here up until 11:59 PM Eastern time, November 30th. I’ll tabulate all the votes and I’ll begin a countdown of the winners starting December 4th!

Sound good?

Okay, here are the guidelines!

1. Vote in the comments section below, making sure to include that classic word “ACBC” somewhere in your comment so your vote will be marked invisible.

2. You’re going to be voting for twenty people in total here. Your ten favorite comic book writers AND your ten favorite comic book artists. Vote for TEN each – less than ten writers and ten artists and I don’t count your ballot.

4. Your top choice will be given 10 points, your second choice 9, etc.

5. Make sure to include ACBC in your ballot.

6. This is for writers and artists who worked primarily in the field of comic books and graphic novels, not comic strips. Vote accordingly.

7. Vote for ten artists and ten writers. You have to have ten writers and ten artists you like! Less than ten artists and ten writers and I will not count your ballot.

8. I get that it is difficult to rank certain creators like Chris Ware, who both write and draw, but just try to do your best. So if you really like Ware, for instance, feel free to put him #1 on both lists.

9. Make sure to include ACBC in your ballot.

10. Vote for ten artists and ten writers. Less than ten artists and ten writers and I will not count your ballot.

11. Plotters count as writers. So if you are just a fan of Keith Giffen’s plots, feel free to vote for him as a writer.

12. On that note, Giffen and DeMatteis don’t count as one vote. I know it is tough to break them up if you like their JLI work, but do your best. If that means having one ranked #1 and one ranked #2 on your list, then so be it. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, guys who have done nearly all their writing work as a team, are a different case. You can vote for them as a team.

13. Make sure to include ACBC in your ballot.

14. I’ll make various other decisions in the interest of fairness.

If you have questions and or requests for clarification, feel free to ask them in the comments section below.

Remember, please include the following word: ACBC – on your ballot. It will make it so your ballot appears invisible to other readers, so only I can read it (and count your vote secretly).

Joe H

Quick question: do web comics count? I mean not the ones that do short strips like newspaper strips like Penny Arcade, but what about the ones that do long form story-telling like Sam & Fuzzy or Gunnerkrigg Court?

I prefer, when possible to read comics with a great writer and a great artist, but I will admit to following writers more than I follow artists. Give me a favourite writer, or one who as impressed me, add an interesting premise/synopsis and that is often enough to get me to check out a book, regardless of who is drawing.

And yet doing this, I found it more difficult to narrow down my choice of artists to just 10 and not quite as difficult for the writer side. Maybe I give more thought to artists than I realised? Or maybe I’m just more prepared to list off my favourite writers. Either way, was interesting to fill out.

Davey Boy Smith

I totally agree that it is more difficult to narrow down one’s list to ten artists as there are so many diverse talents in the field. I actually feel guilty about not having listed several artists whom I believe to be deserving of a place in the Top 100. Once the list has been compiled and released I will give mention to those who I reluctantly cut from my list.

Davey Boy Smith

No manga, but bunch of Europeans, some of which probably have little to no chance to get votes from anyone but me. And couple of Americans I except will not make it to top 100…and even with these I made some compromises (there are e.g. some small press artists who definitely are great but whose work has not been published in English…)
And the boundary between comic book/GN and strip is a bit hazy once you move outside the regular superhero fare. Which side are e.g. MAD magazine creators whose works go over one page?

And ended up putting one creator on both lists because he is really among the top 10 in both categories (couple of others were close calls too).

Man, this was tough! There were a ton of writers who I left off but for some reason I felt worse about leaving off artists. Guys like Eisner, Mazzucchelli, Swan, Miller… Guys I respect (definitely) and like (to varying degrees), but I felt I had to focus on my FAVORITES of the bunch to really get through it.

Trey

Travis Pelkie

I’d make the joke about not knowing how to vote, but jazzbo beat me to it.

When Brian gives us the list in December, how about we comment on what did or didn’t make our list then?

And what’s great about Brian is that he’ll give us the rest of the list as well, cuz he’s awesome like that.

Now I gotta think of my list. I’ve got about 2 weeks, so…

Brian, do you like all this extra work you take on with these lists? Are you a glutton for punishment or a statistician geek? And what Dylan lyrics will you use for the title ?

I think the reason that it’s easier to come up with more than 10 artists than writers is that there are less writers than artists around due to the amount of work that can be done on a monthly basis. That is, a writer can write several books a month, while most artists can barely get through a book a month. So ipso facto, there are more artists to choose from (I have no idea if I used ipso facto correctly, but it sounds good.)

Chris Jones

JoeMac

ArrestThisMan

I found myself hitting my absolute favorites from years gone by but also including a lot of guys who are currently working. It was hard to leave out some of those guys, like Jonathan Hickman and Jason Aaron.

Brian Cronin

Travis Pelkie

Speaking of extra work: something I’d like to see, if your columnists are willing to share, is during December and the reveals of the list, it’d be nice to see everyone’s top 10 lists. (and hey, maybe they could cheat and get their column for the week done with it!) I have notions from what I’ve read of everyone the sorts of writers and artists they’d put on their lists, but it’d be fun to see the lists that the Gregs, Bill, Chad, Kelly, Sonia, Scott, and everyone else that I’m forgetting come up with.

And I’m sure everyone posting will comment on why we picked what during the reveals. (More extra work, how about a list of everyone who contributed a list?)

Just have to come up with my list now. Got a few oddball selections that I’m sure will be low on other people’s lists, if on at all.

DanCJ

Jersen

I ended up taking the same approach. Some I picked simply on the strength of my love of their stories and art back when I was collecting as a kid, such as Chris Claremont and Jim Shooter, and Art Thibert and Norm Breyfogle; while some, such as Mike Allred and Jim Lee, I’ve had a constant love for, even through the years when I wasn’t collecting.

the artist cuts truly are harder than the writer cuts. Because a good artist’s work is more or less consistent, but a good writer may often pen a stinker which sours the reader to them for future works.

Brian Cronin

By the way, I eventually cut and paste all of the votes from the “waiting for moderation” section to a Word doc, then delete the comments (so they don’t clutter up our “waiting for moderation” section). Just pointing this out in case anyone is wondering why they can no longer see their comment.

Edo Bosnar

Yes, that was tough – I took out a notebook and started jotting down my choices first. In less than a minute I had over 30 artists listed, and it only took me slightly longer for a list of about 20 writers. Paring them was quite a chore, and I still feel so bad about all of the ones I left out…
I agree with Travis Pelkie’s suggestion that the lists of CSBG columnists be posted.

AS

…and already now I started to think that I put that one person a bit too high, and the other a bit too low, and there were people who I should have considered including too…oh well, better not think too much about it.
I started doing writers quite fast, and without much pondering came up with ten names. Then I just put them in order.
Artists was a bit trickier, I had seven or eight “have to include” artists and then was left pondering who of the much larger “always enjoyable” crowd I should include too.

Oh, and another thing which I am curious to see how it will turn up in the final list: on my lists there are two female writers and one female artist. I’d be a bit surprised if two of them will show up in the final list, and a bit disappointed if one doesn’t, and generally curious how many female creators will make it…

JWalk

Davey Boy Smith

I second your suggestion. IMO, the work of many artsts has declined somewhat over time. Chaykin comes to mind (whose work peaked during American Flagg), as do artists such as Bachalo (Shade, Death: Time of your Life, Generation X/Next), Byrne, Alan Davis and Neal Adams, to name but a few. I’d also argue to include inkers in some instances as Adam Kubert’s art never looked better than when Mark Farmer was inking it during his stints on Wolverine and The Incredible Hulk. Buckingham always significantly added to Bachalo’s pencils, as well.

I tried to include artists whom I believe to be criminally underrated, young up-and-comers deserving of higher profile work, and higher profile artists whose work I believe to be peerless. A writer earned a spot on my list either due to his/her current excellent output, or by having written a number of titles in the past that have since attained cult status.

Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin

I’ve made a pretty international list. A few French, Belgians, Japanese and Americans, a couple of Brits, one Chilean, one Italian, and one Argentinian. There is no doubt in my mind that each person on my list deserves their place because of their contributions to comic book art.

But I won’t kid myself. I know that the non-Americans and non-Brits will have a hard time appearing on the final list. And yet, who knows?

The Crazed Spruce

I’m gonna have to sit and think about this one. I’ve been a bit out of touch with the comic book market lately, so I’m gonna have to go with my all-time favourites, rather than the ones whose work I’m into right now.

(And by the way, people, the word is “A C B C”, not “A B C B”.)

Rollo Tomassi

As soon as I hit send, I thought of about twenty more artists and writers who didn’t even cross my mind while I was sifting through all the creators I could think of. Narrowing it down to 10 of each is IMPOSSIBLE.

Agreed. Scripts went through a total revolution in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Plot and dialog is vastly more sophisticated today than it was even in the ’70s. The concepts were better and more innovative then. It makes for a simple ‘either/or’ choice. That cut the candidates down to a size that was easier to manage.

Ten is a brutal number for artists, because pencil and ink drawings have been roughly of equal quality for the last half century. That is something that really jumps out at you when reading a DC Showcase or Marvel Essentials. The real innovations on the art side were coloring and printing.

I’d take Silver/Bronze Age artists in their prime on a lot of titles over anyone working today, but I had a hard time finding spots for them.

I do hope people who have managed to spell the four-letter word correctly have picked more of the same creators as I have…not that the lists shown here don’t have good creators worthy of inclusion, but several I had on my lists are missing…

It would be nice to be able to pick certain periods of creators with inconsistent level of work but pretty quickly that would boil down to people naming individual works and making calculations would become hard (is “Frank Miller in Daredevil” counted together with “Frank Miller in Sin City”?). One just has to pick creators who are consistently good or whose good stuff is so good that any amount of bad stuff won’t erase that.

Craig B.

Brian, apparently you’re going to have to make it so that any combination of 4 letters involving A, B and C (and maybe D) causes it to be hidden and awaiting moderation. It’s really pretty funny how hard that simple instruction is for some people to follow.

Meatbag

Mario

At the risk of being redundant, I too have to comment on how picking my top ten artists is proving to be far more difficult than picking my top ten writers. It took me just a couple of minutes to get my top ten writers sorted out. As for my top ten artists, well, I’ve got about 15 for now. I think i’ll let it stew for a while, I’ve got until the 30th after all.

Damn this is fun. I wonder if there will be enough variation in the votes to come up with a list of a 100 writers and another list of 100 artists.

Mario

I think it’s more difficult to pick artists because they tend to have a distinctive style. For example, you can take two writers that have similar style (say, the co-writers of Gotham Central?) and based on other work they’ve done you can probably pick your favourite of the two and you don’t feel as though your list has lost a really important member because you’ve got someone similar to the one you lost. Make sense? It just seems less obvious to use this method with artists. Damn it this is hard yet so fun!

Ricardo Marques

jazzbo

Is this some kind of joke? How do like 8 people all use the same incorrect letter combo within a few hour period? Plus, one of them has the same name as me. Not that that’s related in any way, just pointing out I have a very common name.

JoeMac

Well, one good thing about people being too dumb (sorry, couldn’t think of a nicer word) to hide their votes with a simple four letter combination… I know I don’t have to feel bad about not voting about a few really great writers (like Morrison) to make room for some more obscure guys.

One terrible thing is that I’ve seen quite a few votes for Jeph Loeb. Ouch. That will definitely fan the flames when this list is posted next month.

JoeMac

(and by obscure, I’m mean guys like Roger Stern, Steve Englehart, Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Jim Starlin, Marv Wolfman, Denny O’Neil… How can Leob and Meltzer be making people’s list, and not a single mistakenly public vote for any of these guys – except for one that I saw for Wolfman… Amazing)

Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin

By the way, remember, since the people following the rules are not visible to you, it will appear as though a bunch of people in a row didn’t put the ACBC, but it’s really, like, 4 posts mixed in with 100 posts who did put it.

That said, yeah, please put the code in, folks.

Bob A Booey

It’s horrifiying when I see people with hacks like Geoff Johns on their list but no Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Roy Thomas or Frank Miller. But then again, they can’t even type 4 letters in the correct order so maybe the intelligence just isn’t there….

"O" the Humanatee!

@keil: I suspect the reason we’re seeing so many contemporary/recent names on the lists is just that most readers here are relatively young. I’ve been reading comics for around 40 years (making me ancient here), and my lists of candidates go further back than most peoples’. And even then, I expect I’ll only include creators whose work came out while I was collecting (with the possible exception of Dick Sprang).

In anticipation of the results, I’ll make a point I think I made when Brian released the results of the CBR poll, in response to people getting angry that a certain creator hadn’t appeared when they themselves hadn’t voted for that creator:

To appear anywhere in the extended results – that is, after the top 10 – a creator has to be in someone’s top 10. Imagine that there’s a creator whom almost everyone agrees belongs in the top 50, but whom no one feels strongly enough about to put in their own top 10. That creator will not wind up appearing in the results at all. While this extreme case is relatively unlikely, the point is that the methodology makes the results below no. 10 less and less representative and meaningful of the overall tastes of the group. If everyone were asked to submit their top 50 creators, then the top 50 would be reasonably representative, and so on. (This is not a criticism of Brian, just a comment on the limitations of the methodology.)

"O" the Humanatee!

“pencil and ink drawings have been roughly of equal quality for the last half century”? I’m not sure what you mean by “quality,” but there are vast differences in style and approach – and presumably in fans’ preferences – between, say, Gene Colan and Jim Lee.

Rene

I feel guilty that my list is too superhero-centric. What can I say? It’s the stuff I’ve most read.

It is difficult to include names that I was fanatical about in the 1980s, but have lost me with their modern works. I’ve tried to weight how much I liked their early work against how much I hated the later work.

Not easy.

JoeMac

Not including Kirby feels like I committed some type of sin. But this vote is for my favorite creators, not the all-time best creators, and although I recognize that Kirby is incredible, he’s never been a favorite of mine.

Then again, the same can be said for dozens of creators I left off my list.

Argh. Now I have a headache.

"O" the Humanatee!

I don’t understand why some people are voting strategically, by, for example, leaving Grant Morrison off their lists in favor of a more obscure or less popular writer they would presumably not include otherwise. It’s a popularity contest, not an arbiter of taste. If one of your favorites doesn’t appear on the list, they’re not going to stop being your favorite. I guess it makes sense if you’re seeking to gain your guy/girl some attention by having them appear on the list.

But hey, you can get them some attention by mentioning them here! I bet Harvey Kurtzman isn’t going to make a lot of lists (I haven’t decided yet whether he’ll place on mine), but the guy wrote great Mad parodies and trailblazing war stories.

There’s always at least some “flavor of the month” entries doing well in polls like this, and generally more modern creators doing well. For some voters those are the only ones they are familiar with, and for many voters works of modern creators are easier to connect with. Also it is easier to remember a creator from who you read something last week than a creator who has not done any new work in 15 years…well, of course there is the canon of creators many name once questions like these are put forth because, well, they are good and canon (and I admit of having some People of Historical Importance on my list beside contemporary picks, but those were ones I still regularly return to and enjoy).
That said, I wouldn’t be too surprised if some canon people like e.g. Stan Lee ends up doing really badly in this voting. I recognize his importance, but in all honesty I can think of dozens of writers I’d prefer reading before him…

No matter what the subject, these public votes tend to go for overemphasis of either new stuff (“‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ is the best book ever? Rrrright.”) or boringly canonical (“Oh look, they picked ‘Sgt Pepper’ as the best album of all time, how original”), but still, it is interesting to see how these turn out.

There are style differences, but they are more between individual artists than generations. If you went back to early in his career and took the Gene Colan to 21st century, then that guy could easily draw a Vertigo book without anyone thinking of it as ‘retro’ as long as the coloring (and their effects) and printing were modern.

On the other hand, you could not take a script from a Silver Age writer, have it re-drawn by (say) JH Williams III and have it not feel retro.

Andy

@O, The Humanatee: “If one of your favorites doesn’t appear on the list, they’re not going to stop being your favorite.”

True, but that serves just as well as an argument not to vote at all. I’m in it and pulling for my favorites to appear because it’s a fun little diversion, like professional sports for other folks. And I’m pretty sure GM is going to be #1 or 2 whether I vote for him or not, so it’s a bit more fun if I pick somebody where I think my points might matter. I’m not picking the only ten guys I get to read for the rest of my life. And coming to the end of this paragraph, I think we’ve both already overthought this.

Rene

fourthworlder

Not including Kirby at least as an artist may not technically be a sin, but they’ll likely tease you in Heaven.

That said, I actually am stunning mayself with the realization, that he!!! is!!!!! my favorite!!!! writer!!!!
This based on the fact that my three favorite single issues of anything were scripted by him, from a couple of years before he started losing it!!!!! with!!!! the exclamation!!!!!!!!!!! points. And oh yeah at the very least co-plotted a phenomenonal stack of phenominally good books.

And that being said, I’m already accepting the likelihood that he won’t be #1 with this crowd. You krazy kids. You go to penalty box for two minutes, you feel shame.

The Crazed Spruce

Well, my top artist was easy, and the next five were fine (though I had a bit of trouble figuring out the exact order), but I had a bit of trouble figuring out the next three. My tenth spot (and the tenth writers’ spot, too, for that matter) went to a legendary artist whose work I wasn’t always happy with, but whose pure talent and imagination couldn’t be denied.

On the other hand, my top 10 writers list was pretty much set in stone. (A lot of people tied for 11, though….)

XBen

Gavin Bell

It’s weird how you end up ranking things in your head – if Garth Ennis had never written anything except Punisher Max he’d probably make my top 5 but everything else he’s done puts him out of contention.

I mean, there are people whose work I adored back in the day. And, re-reading the same work now brings back happy nostalgia memories. But, would I buy it fresh today? Is that because my tastes have changed, or because the industry has changed?

I can’t help but remember how much I disliked Stan Lee’s Ravage 2099. His FF and Spider-Man work, I loved. But, this felt like 60s FF in a 2099 setting published in the 90s. It just didn’t work for me.

But, on the other hand, is that because he isn’t as good a writer as I thought he was in the 70s? Or, is it because he was writing out of his element? Or, was I expecting too much? So many questions.

The same can be said of Chris Claremont and comparing his 80s X-Men to his 90s X-Men to his 2000s return to the X-Men.

I think that I’ll start with, “whose work (new or collected) would I buy today based on name recognition alone?” And, then pare them down from there.

Ian A.

It did a number on me, as well. I wound up selecting creators I could vouch for today, at this very instant. As a result, my lists are pretty lopsided towards the present, but they’re all creators I dig immensely.

(Arnold Drake is totally #11 on my writers list.)

Dalarsco

This was an incredibly hard pair of lists to write, especially the artist’s list. Lists usually are hard to do after my top three because after a few, lifechanging stories I’ve read or writers I’ve come across it’s usually a shmozzle of things I really, really like.
The artists were particularly hard because it’s difficult to compare artists with different styles. It might be easy to choose a favorite between Byrne and Cockrum or Hitch and Porter, but deciding between Kirby and Seinkwicz is difficult because they both have such different styles that are suited to such completely different books. It’s easier to rank writers because the best writers are more likely to excel at many different types of stories. I ended up giving artists props for originality, flexibility, and detail. As it stands there are a ton of ones that I love and really, really wish I could have fit on the list.

I assume you’ll do the Alaska write in policy and vote our intent if we misspell, say, Bill Sienkiewicz?

What will be interesting with the “writers are easier to pick than artists” bit we’ve been discussing is how the points spread is for artists vs writers. I’m guessing that more writers will get lots of votes, and more artists will pick up a few points here and there. But I could be wrong. That’s why December will rock!

It will be interesting to see who likes what here. Will you compare the ranking this time with your 2006 rankings?

And I don’t know why Kelly’s list popped up in my email because she put the 4 letters in right. Was that a gift to me personally, Brian?

fourthworlder

What level of objective perspective should be required of an “all-time” selection, and how long is honestly necessary to achieve that perspective? I went through an intense period in the late 70s when in my teen-aged eyes over and over Claremont and Byrne kept repeatedly producing the greatest single comic book issue I had ever read, and were clearly the ultimate writer and artist ever,
A few years later, Frank Miller exactly did the same thing, in both categories.

A couple of decades’ later worth of perspective, they’ll all likely make my final cut, each coming in around #7, 8 or 9, unless somebody else occurs that I haven’t thought of yet.
Perspective – a crucial element of any legitimate choice.

And hey, anybody voting for Rick Veitch? He’s looking to make both my lists.
And, ever more unlikely, is anyone considering Robert Crumb?? Of so, writer or artist? I’m having trendous dificulty not including him somewhere.

Gaetano Montera

Thanks as always for hard work! Just wanted to mention that you might want to mention the thing about your list not becoming visible. As a casual voter I always forget (though I admit to general stupidity too.) But I looked around for about ten minutes before figuring it out.

Adam Messinger

Oliver Staley

I found it much easier to list artists than writers. Artists, I think are, much more consistent over the course of their careers and there are a few of them that I will buy anything they do. Writers are more inconsistent and even the ones at the top of my list are capable of dreck. I ended up pick the ones whose best work had the biggest impact on me. I also struggled with what to do with the Lee and Kirby. I find a lot of their stuff difficult to read, but I felt I couldn’t ignore their influence in shaping the universe all my other top writers and artists inhabited. Ultimately, I decided any list without them would seem silly.

Stefan Wenger

For me the writers list was much easier. I can think of 30 writers off the top of my head where I’ll at least check out anything they do. For artists, there’s only two or three unless I’m interested in the writer too.

So Brian – After all your hard work (and thank you so much), do you think sometime we could get a poll of our favorite writers (and/or artists) based on current output, rather than all-time? My list, at least, would be quite different.

I mean Alan Moore is still an extremely talented writer – Neonomicon is so deeply affecting and disturbing that it makes Garth Ennis look like Kurt Busiek – but I’m generally more excited to see whatever Hickman, Fraction or Van Lente are putting on the shelf next week than by most of my all-time favorites (Morrison excepted).

jm

Mudassir

I must say picking artists was a bitch. I left many off my list that deserve a mention; Bryan Hitch, Herge, Michael Avon Oeming, Darwyn Cooke, Stuart Immonen, Gary Frank, Frank Quitely, Ryan Kelly…damn, its a whole other list.

I would remind everyone though, that if you vote for Sean Phillips, also vote for Val Staples, because even if he isn’t the penciller, his work brings the best out of Phillips.

Also, Gabriel Rodriguez is doing some of the best work in the medium ever on Locke & Key.

kcekada

Let’s face it, no one in the biz today is going to be able to maintain the same level of work — 20 years later. So, I’m going by when these guys were at the top of their game — and made long-lasting contributions to the industry.

Erndog

Humanatee’s points are spot on. However, just for giggles, why don’t you all just do your own top 100 lists to begin with, instead of “Oh no I forgot so and so”, “Here’s who just missed my cut…”, and “I sure hope *fill in the blank* isn’t on the list…” ? That way you can compare with the “groupthink” edition, and there won’t be any “Oh damn, whatever happened to this guy, and why aren’t they listed?!”, because persumably one of you will have.

If Brian can sit there and tabulate votes and make a list, surely you guys can each come up with your own, yes?

If they are not, they should be. (I can let several of my picks go as too obscure or matter of taste, but if Goscinny fails to make top 100 writer list, the list is a failure. No discussion, no excuses.)

John Van Atta

making this list was a fascinating process. distinguishing ‘favorite’ from ‘best’ was interesting. It’s distinguishing what meant a lot to you vs. what meant a lot to the medium. I leaned towards favorite, but mixed a little of best in as well.

Nick Goodchild wrote:

“You know, my writers list ran much more modern than my artists list, is that a sign that art hasn’t really improved much whereas writing definitely has?”

Great question! I don’t know the answer, but I do know that more people talk about the cinematography of Citizen Kane than talk about the script. How come?

Well, any linguist would tell you that language is inherently dated. People talked different in the 40s than they do today. But people also drew different, so that can’t be the whole explanation.

Another explanation is the economic mechanisms that produced comics and the demographics for which they were produced. Writers could crank out a word count much faster than artists could crank out a page count. They were also writing for a much younger audience.

But that can’t be the whole answer, because artists were also drawing for a younger audience.

For me, it comes down to the fact that comics are ‘sequential art’. It’s definition as a medium is based on the sequential use of images. Therefore, the language of comics was created primarily by the artists. I follow writers much more than I do artists, but I acknowledge that artists were the ones who built the medium.

Lee

There were some people that I went, “Oh, I loved (writer or artist)’s work on (character.)” But, I didn’t include them on my Top Ten because … well, mainly because there was only room for 10, but also because if I love their work on a specific character, but not elsewhere, then I must like them less than people whose work I enjoy no matter the character.

Two people I had to re-evaluate once I realized I was rating them not just on their comic book work, but other work as well. One person got cut entirely because I realized that I found their comic book work to be so-so, and it was their paintings, pin ups, and sketch work put them at the forefront of my mind.

It was difficult for me to choose. I’m looking forward to the results.

Agreeing to Ricardo Marques’s bit on newspaper strips.
There is an argument to be made that many newspaper strips have been made as being 3-panel-strips specifically, which is different than fully sequential art as seen in either comics or manga or most ‘European strips’. Normal Hergé Tin-Tin books, or Goscinny’s ‘Asterix Et Obelix’ will basically be comics, I’d think.

[…] running, via the Comics Should Be Good blog, a vote for the Top 100 Favourite Writers and Artists, find it here. They need your top ten lists, for both category, stat. I took my sweet time deliberating over […]

Peter Krause

When I read all these comments about how modern comic-book writing is so vastly superior to the comic book writing of the past, I can’t help but throw up a little bit in my mouth. I must be living on an entirely different planet, where comic book writing is currently at its all-time nadir. I despair that not many of my picks will make it, this time around…

[…] on CBR, and more specifically the Comics Should Be Good blog, they are running a Top 100 countdown of favourite writers and artists. I took my time, deliberated internally, and came up with my two lists. It was a tough one, and […]

PsychoGoatee

JShafer

1. Peter David, hands down the most consistent and engaging writer in comic books today. His runs on Hulk, and X-factor were legendary, and his dedication to his books are unmatched in comics today. What other writer in comics today can claim the uninterrupted run that David currently has on his second launch of X-Factor. He’s someone that should be in the top ten, but’ll probably end up with an honorable mention because kids are too busy jizzing their paints over super hero boobs, or foul language in the latest Ennis book.

PsychoGoatee

Lets see, hes got about 60 issues in his X-Factor run at the moment. I suppose Kirkman tops that on Invincible and Walking Dead, and of course Savage Dragon is at issue 166 with Larsen. And hey, adults like boobs too.

John J

I really liked my list of artists, but then looking over this realized I forgot names like Gil Kane, George Perez, Gene Colan and John Buscema. Ten wasn’t enough.
Mostly I just wish that any I listed who are still alive would have all the work they wanted from the current dumbasses running Marvel/DC. It’s just painful to open up most of the current comics.

Vladislav

Anonymous

Comparing creator owned books to for hire work is completely unfair if you’re talking about run time. Invincible and TWD are amazing books, but I don’t really think anybody would call them mainstream titles. They’re appeal is to a hardcore comic fan base, and aren’t exactly the sort of thing you’d see off a newsstand on a random street corner. Also, David;’s current run on X-Factor is longer than 75 issues, and without huge gaps in release time between issues.

geeknoid

Brian Cronin

Comparing creator owned books to for hire work is completely unfair if you’re talking about run time. Invincible and TWD are amazing books, but I don’t really think anybody would call them mainstream titles. They’re appeal is to a hardcore comic fan base, and aren’t exactly the sort of thing you’d see off a newsstand on a random street corner. Also, David;’s current run on X-Factor is longer than 75 issues, and without huge gaps in release time between issues.

The Walking Dead is not mainstream?

Yikes.

You might want to reconsider your notion of what “mainstream” is if you believe X-Factor (which I have no beef with, it’s a fine series) is more mainstream than The Walking Dead.

It is not – not at all.

That’s not a value judgment about the relative quality of either series, it’s just a pretty obvious fact.

Santiago Mollo

I have to agree with Mr Cronin, even if you don’t take into consideration how well the comics have been selling since 2003, the fact that it has a very successful TV series that made it tremendously popular around the whole world (or at least a very big list of countries) certainly makes it more mainstream than a spin-off X title that was a record seller in the 90’s… 15 years ago.

Ed

GHAAAAWA! What I thought was my thoughtful, well-reasoned and thoroughly comprehensive top 10 lists have just been torpedoed by Mudassir pointing out that I totally forgot Gabriel Rodriguez’s work on Locke & Key. Joe Hill has been stellar in the writing department on that series as well.

Well, goddmanit!!!!! Don’t you other folks forget about Rodriguez/Hill like I did! Vote for them. Vote for them 2X to make up for my oversight!! Vote now! Before you forget. NOW, GOADDMANIT!!!

Anonymous

I’d completely disagree with the notion that either titles, published under Image comics are mainstream. You’re applying the term mainstream to titles that don’t do retail outside of businesses that place on emphasis on comics sales. I’ve been around the world a number of times on deployments and when I pull into port I can find a copy of something like X-factor, as long as we’re still running with it as an example at any chain that sells comics in the US. Similarly, I could walk into most any grocery store which still sells comics (of which there are depressingly few these days), or borders, walden books, books a million, what have you, and find that title. While you would be hard pressed to find someone that doesn’t carry the trades most of these same places don’t carry Invincible or Walking Dead in their single issue formats because they don’t have “adult” sections for their titles. I don’t want to sound like I’m trashing Kirkman’s books, because I’m not. I think he’s a brilliant writer, and I’ve actually pulled both of the titles in question since their respective launches. The Walking Dead was not however a household name in the same way that, say an x title, or something with a green ring would have been prior to the show being launched on AMC. Rather it was something that I, and everyone else I know that also read regularly enjoyed, but couldn’t find anywhere outside of our local comic shop. I pawned a first print of the walking dead’s first issue for 400 bones the other day, could I have done that a year ago? Absolutely not, nor do I imagine it would be possible even going into the show’s second season. So I suppose what I really mean by “mainstream” is do retailers who don’t perform the majority of their sales in comic book memorabilia carry a title. When you’re talking about mainstream after all, you’re talking about something concurrent with the majority of thought, culture, etc. Not what those of us that get our nerd on over message boards in between shifts think is and isn’t in the know. I would argue that any Xbook, and certainly The Incredible Hulk are most instantly recognizable to the random joe on the street than, and again not an attack on Image as I read more of their stuff these days than anyone else, an Image book.

[…] before, over on CBR, and more specifically the Comics Should Be Good blog, they are running a Top 100 countdown of favourite writers and artists. I took my time, deliberated internally, and came up with my two lists. It was a tough one, and […]

bl000

Third Man

With both of my lists I opted to just go modern age (1980-present), because I haven’t read enough earlier stuff to feel I’m making informed opinions and voting on it for any other reason than just feeling obligated to. I’ve read a decent amount of stuff from the Lee/Kirby/Ditko/Thomas/Eisner/Adams/Steranko canon, but virtually nothing of any of their contemporaries. But that being said, I still voted for Lee because I felt obligated to.

Something I’m genuinely curious about in regards to the artists list… how will the seven Image founders do? I’m guessing Liefeld and Valentino don’t even sniff the top 100, Larsen will probably miss out, and Portacio is a maybe. Silvestri will be in there somewhere (though his proteges Michael Turner and David FInch will leave him in their dust), and McFarlane should be a sure thing, but I bet he’ll be outside the top 20, which is difficult to imagine considering he was arguably comics’ biggest celebrity for probably a ten year period (though I didn’t even consider voting for him, so I certainly won’t be disappointed if he places low). But Jim Lee should be a top ten guy. We’ll see.

I expect we’ll see guys like Dave Gibbons and Davis Mazzuchelli outrank guys like Todd McFarlane and Joe Madureira, which is interesting on many levels. While the formers have never been as remotely as popular as the latters, they will be familiar to younger fans because of the true classics they’ve drawn. Guys like Madureira and McFarlane barely work anymore, and didn’t draw any stories that are considered classics, so they have virtually no legacy.

Joe

It’s interesting. I didn’t vote for Eisner. Maybe because I think of him as a newspaper guy, even though he’s obviously so much more. He never put out a “typical monthly comic” (to my knowledge) but both the Spirit and his graphic novels shaped the medium. I guess in the end, I don’t really think he needs to be on either list because he’s basically a list unto himself. I mean, if you include Eisner, the real fun is from # 2-101, right?

Travis Pelkie

bl000, I think you might be the only one to put E Nelson Bridewell on your list, cuz I think his name is Bridwell.

I finally voted. Damn you, Louis Bright-Raven! I decided to go his route and make my own top 100 list for both. I gave up ranking after about 30-50 of either, but I’m fairly happy with my lists. I had taken names that popped in my head along the way, then looked at the names that popped up on the comments here (including the ones that forgot the magic word!)

I actually found it harder to sort writers, but I guess that’s not real surprising since I buy stuff more for the writers than the artists. I almost left out a big one on my list because of the way I sorted names.

Another thing I did to help sort was list writer/artists. May I suggest, if you don’t lose your mind from this, Brian, maybe doing a list of top writer/artists? There’s someone on my list that ranked 3rd on writer and artist, but would be 1 on my writer/artist list (weird, huh?).

My list ended up more superhero creator centric than I would have guessed, but I think that’s because superhero guys do longer runs and several different books, so you can like different stuff of theirs, while indy guys tend to stay with one particular book and work slower, so if you’re not into their one thing, they won’t make your list. Maybe.

I also discovered/confirmed that while most of the writers I liked were somewhat varied, the artists I prefer are either cartoony types, or do weird scratchy things (although Sienkiewicz didn’t make my artist top 10, somehow…).

Great fun, even though it was hard!

Trey Conrad

Regarding whether or not the Walking Dead is mainstream I’ve talked to the owner of my local comic shop and he told me time and time again the Walking Dead trades sellout. He said he has numerous customers that he only see when a new trade comes out. This was at least a year before the show started. If that’s not mainstream I don’t know what is. To me mainstream is something that is in the public’s conscious. It doesn’t matter what the sales are or how easily it can be found. To say the public hasn’t known about Walking Dead for a while now is a bit silly.

Ed

Sean Murphy! There’s another one I didn’t even think about until now. He’s fairly new to most people, but doing great work on Joe the Barbarian and even “showing up” Grant Morrison a bit on that series.

And what the heck, I’ll put in a little plug for the guy I’m rooting for. If any of you out there had the pleasure of viewing “Cursed Pirate Girl” and enjoy what you see there, don’t forget to put a vote in for Jeremy Bastian. He also did a great contribution to one of the “Tales of the Mouse Guard” issues that came out in the last half-year or so. I can see where he may not be for all tastes, but those of you who have seen his work and liked what you see, you know what I’m talking about. Don’t forget to throw a few votes his way if you’re so inclined.

So many good artists, so few slots . . . as a comics fan, that’s a pretty good problem to have I figure.

Ritchard

Jeez…. I didn’t think this would be hard until I started compiling the list and looking at the number of folks I consider to be awesome, yet who weren’t quite making the cut. Particularly a lot of modern folks whose work I love, but ones I simply could not put in positions higher than some people I’ve admired my entire life.

IAMFeAR

Alright, so I turned in my votes a few hours late, but whatever.
Cant believe I forgot about that…

Some of my votes were a bit random, as narrowing down those lists was extremely difficult.
And I paid no attention to their ‘best’ status and picked people whose work I enjoyed a lot at various points in my life.